Battle for Azeroth Alpha Preview: In-game Communities

Last week's alpha build added new assets to the game that are highly expected by many: in-game community assets! As previewed during BlizzCon, starting in Battle for Azeroth, WoW will support both same realm and cross realm communities, as an extension of the guild system. Your first community, when the system launches, will be your guild at the time.\rThis system will allow you to have broader communication options with fellow community members, including multiple text channels, text channel history, simple role management, quick join, voice integration, roster listing and calendar invites. You will be able to be part of multiple communities at the same time, in addition to your current guild. \rBelow you can see the first iteration of the system on Alpha. Note that this is an Alpha preview and the system is incomplete, not working properly, and subject to change at any point during testing.\r\r\r\r\r\r\rThis last build added and modified many globalstrings related to communities:\rCREATE_COMMUNITYIES_CREATE_DIALOG_NAME_LABEL\rCommunity Name\rCREATE_COMMUNITYIES_CREATE_DIALOG_DESCRIPTION_LABEL\rCommunity Description\rCREATE_COMMUNITYIES_CREATE_DIALOG_ICON_LABEL\rCommunity Icon Index\rCREATE_COMMUNITYIES_CREATE_DIALOG_TYPE_LABEL\rCharacter Community\rCREATE_COMMUNITYIES_CREATE_DIALOG_DESCRIPTION_INSTRUCTIONS\rEnter aOptional description of your community.\rNEW CHAT_COMMUNITIES_CHANNEL_GET\r%s:\\32\rNEW CHAT_COMMUNITIES_CHANNEL_JOINED_NOTICE\rChanged Channel: |Hchannel:%d|h|h\rNEW COMMUNITIES_ADD_COMMUNITY\rAdd Community\rNEW COMMUNITIES_CREATE_DIALOG_NAME_INSTRUCTIONS\rThe name of your community\rNEW COMMUNITIES_CREATE_DIALOG_AVATAR_PICKER_INSTRUCTIONS\rSelect an Icon\rNEW COMMUNITIES_CREATE_DIALOG_ICON_SELECTION_BUTTON\rChange\rNEW COMMUNITIES_ADD_DIALOG_WOW_LABEL\rCreate %s Community\rNEW COMMUNITIES_ADD_DIALOG_BATTLE_NET_LABEL\rCreate Blizzard Group\rNEW COMMUNITIES_ADD_DIALOG_INVITE_LINK_JOIN\rJoin\rNEW COMMUNITIES_ADD_DIALOG_INVITE_LINK_DESCRIPTION\rEnter a group's invitation link or code:\rNEW COMMUNITIES_ADD_DIALOG_INVITE_LINK_LABEL\rJoin Group\rNEW COMMUNITIES_ADD_DIALOG_CREATE_BNET_DESCRIPTION\r- Great for cross-game friends|n- Invite any player (members join as their BattleTag)\rNEW COMMUNITIES_ADD_DIALOG_CREATE_BNET_LABEL\rCreate Blizzard Group\rNEW COMMUNITIES_ADD_DIALOG_CREATE_WOW_DESCRIPTION_NO_FACTION\r- Great for in-game friends|n- Invite characters from any realm|n- Calendar and Quick Join support\rNEW COMMUNITIES_ADD_DIALOG_CREATE_WOW_LABEL\rCreate World of Warcraft Community (%s)\rNEW COMMUNITIES_ADD_DIALOG_LABEL\rAdd Community\rNEW COMMUNITIES_CREATE_DIALOG_WOW_LABEL\rCreate %s Community\rNEW COMMUNITIES_CREATE_DIALOG_BATTLE_NET_LABEL\rCreate Blizzard Group\rNEW COMMUNITIES_ADD_DIALOG_CREATE_WOW_LABEL_NO_FACTION\rCreate World of Warcraft Community\rNEW COMMUNITIES_ADD_DIALOG_CREATE_WOW_DESCRIPTION\r- Great for in-game friends|n- Invite %s characters from any realm|n- Calendar and Quick Join support\r\r\rThe system UI looks pretty similar to the BlizzCon previews, but there might be new features added to it in the future. \rWhat features are you most excited about the system? Or what features would you like to see added? Let us know in the comments below!

Commenti

Commento di SlyRog

on 2018-04-17T22:12:47-05:00

Looks promising, hope it works out.

Commento di Gogeta1990

on 2018-04-17T22:13:35-05:00

I'm not saying this is gonna be a bad system or implementation, but wondering why people would use this over discord, unless they really hate using external, out of game programs.\r\rCause that's basically what they're trying to create, an ingame version of discord. I just don't see it ever having equal or better functionality.

Commento di Whyfi

on 2018-04-17T22:19:57-05:00

Didn't know how excited I was for this until I read about it. Should be a fun way to communicate with people.

Commento di CyrusDarkstar

on 2018-04-17T22:22:15-05:00

This just looks like some meager attempt to lure people away from other forms of social media and external communication. Discord is already jam packed with resource rich communities for every conceivable type of Warcraft player along with every other multiplayer game currently floating around. I just hope whatever resources were wasted creating and further developing this... "feature" doesn't lead to more Warlords of Draenor style cutbacks.

Commento di Izlandi

on 2018-04-17T22:23:42-05:00

imo Discord is still better because you can be playing different games and still chat\/voice chat.

Commento di charly9315

on 2018-04-17T22:24:28-05:00

think of communities for specific activities for example I'm going to one to do farming of old raids that can not be done alone for the xmog

Commento di kaleestraza

on 2018-04-17T22:36:16-05:00

I'm not saying this is gonna be a bad system or implementation, but wondering why people would use this over discord, unless they really hate using external, out of game programs.\r\rCause that's basically what they're trying to create, an ingame version of discord. I just don't see it ever having equal or better functionality.\r\rBig difference between ingame chat and Discord. People that are on Disc aren't always ingame and ready to go, so I always use ingame chat for stuff like "Hey who wants to help with X." Discord also requires a lot of moderation and tends to be less accessible to people that just want a couple extra buddies from all kinds of different places put together in one chat. Just because someone is my friend doesn't mean they'll be allowed on my Guild's discord especially considering a lot of irl stuff gets posted there.

Commento di nmb3000

on 2018-04-17T22:42:30-05:00

An improved guild and calendar UI, including persistent chat and more integration with stuff like group finder and calendar events, is what I'm really hoping from this. I agree with others that something like Discord will probably still be better for "communities" (assuming Discord stays free) because Blizzard's in-game UIs are usually pretty clunky.

But really, they are only 4 months out (probably 3 or so until pre-patch) and still apparently have basically nothing implemented for this feature so far, so I don't have high hopes that most of it will even make it for BFA release. I'm guessing communities will be an 8.1 or 8.2 feature.

Commento di guardiantitan

on 2018-04-17T22:43:21-05:00

Many players don't use Discord. I personally don't use it because I see no reason to go to a third party site when Blizzard should be offering the same thing in the game itself. I hate going to third party sites for anything although I tolerate WoWhead and MMO-Champion. I'd certainly prefer if WoWhead were built into the game and if news were more readily available within the game, too. If I have to, then that's a failing on Blizzard's part. I find third party sites to be as bad as Blizzard making major announcements and only communicating with players via third party sites. If you have to use a third party site for news and talking with the developers, then what's the point to their own forums? The same is true of guides and even communities. Blizzard should be offering these themselves.

If you find the Blizzard system lacking, then make suggestions on how they can improve it to entice you to use it over Discord and similar communities. Now is the time to make suggestions. If you fail to make suggestions to improve it, then you really can't complain when you whine that the system is sub par and you're "forced" to continue to use Discord.

Personally, I'm not sure I'd use the communities in the game. Maybe I will. More than likely I won't. I'm more interested in more connected realms at the moment than I am in communities.

Commento di hotaru251

on 2018-04-17T22:43:39-05:00

I'm not saying this is gonna be a bad system or implementation, but wondering why people would use this over discord, unless they really hate using external, out of game programs.\r\rCause that's basically what they're trying to create, an ingame version of discord. I just don't see it ever having equal or better functionality.\r\r\rFrom prior experience, when i had a potato pc, playing game and alt tabbing to a browser was time consuming and could slow pc down.\r\rHavign an ingame discord like thing would appeal to those i assume.\r\r\r\rtbh im for anything that cuts a middleman.\rrather use the game system than another app.

Commento di blissfire

on 2018-04-17T22:44:55-05:00

Y'know, this can exist alongside Discord. You can use both. ;)\r\rI am *really* looking forward to this. I don't like the always-in-your-business nature of guilds, but pugs get way too ridiculous without accountability. This seems like it could be a good middle ground. I can imagine all the streamers setting up these cross-realm Comms for viewer raids or gold farming. Also, yeah, transmog Comms, pet collecting, achieves that can't be completed solo.\r\rThis could be really, really good. *crosses fingers*

Commento di Donhorn

on 2018-04-17T23:07:50-05:00

I'm not saying this is gonna be a bad system or implementation, but wondering why people would use this over discord, unless they really hate using external, out of game programs.\r\rCause that's basically what they're trying to create, an ingame version of discord. I just don't see it ever having equal or better functionality.\r\rMy guild has been having problems with Discord. Everything from specific people always having a problem getting their headset to work to occasionally having the Discord server crap out on us. Before that (and to some extent still now) there are also the people who it's like pulling teeth to get them into voice chat even if we only need them to be able to listen to instructions. Having something in game should help with most of those issues. (I think the headset one is probably more user error than a Discord issue.) I'm just hoping that the community stuff is extended to the launcher and mobile app too because I do like being able to chat with my guidies and let them know if I might be running late or something.

Commento di ladilock

on 2018-04-17T23:08:15-05:00

it kills me how they are able to come up with this new interface for "guild lite" but can't revamp the looking for guild interface. Blizz hates guilds.

Commento di ladilock

on 2018-04-17T23:09:59-05:00

Just because someone is my friend doesn't mean they'll be allowed on my Guild's discord especially considering a lot of irl stuff gets posted there.\r\rnothing is stopping you from creating your own personal discord channel.

Commento di ranger10700

on 2018-04-17T23:23:50-05:00

While I will end up using it for a few particular things already mentioned (old raids for the most part), I would have preferred a different approach. I'm sure Blizzard being the big company they are can also see how big Discord is now and into the future for gamer's. Why not team up with Discord and have it integrated into the game itself? Discord already lets you link your battle.net account, imagine having your discord channel's in some interface directly in the game?\r\rOne of the features requested by Discord for ages now are skins for the UI. Imagine each Blizzard game (and other games too) having their own custom UI in-game that you could then unlock to use on the actual discord application as well if you have purchased the game in question? I think it would make for a great cross-marketing strategy, would be great fan service for people who already use Discord and ultimately may save Blizzard on resources if this infrastructure is running on Discord's end.\r\rI'm not so dumb to see that there are risks involved as with any partnership like this such as Discord closing shop or privacy concerns on either end (that I'm sure both companies can work together on), but I think it would be a great start to unifying where gamer's talk to each other.\r\r\/opinion

Commento di Agniwolf

on 2018-04-17T23:41:10-05:00

While I will end up using it for a few particular things already mentioned (old raids for the most part), I would have preferred a different approach. I'm sure Blizzard being the big company they are can also see how big Discord is now and into the future for gamer's. Why not team up with Discord and have it integrated into the game itself? Discord already lets you link your battle.net account, imagine having your discord channel's in some interface directly in the game?\r\rOne of the features requested by Discord for ages now are skins for the UI. Imagine each Blizzard game (and other games too) having their own custom UI in-game that you could then unlock to use on the actual discord application as well if you have purchased the game in question? I think it would make for a great cross-marketing strategy, would be great fan service for people who already use Discord and ultimately may save Blizzard on resources if this infrastructure is running on Discord's end.\r\rI'm not so dumb to see that there are risks involved as with any partnership like this such as Discord closing shop or privacy concerns on either end (that I'm sure both companies can work together on), but I think it would be a great start to unifying where gamer's talk to each other.\r\r\/opinion\r\ror this could be blizzard experimentation on creating its own platform and integrates all of their games of even create their own "3rd party" themselves (unlikelly, but not impossible)

Commento di Vynillin

on 2018-04-18T00:01:25-05:00

I'm not saying this is gonna be a bad system or implementation, but wondering why people would use this over discord, unless they really hate using external, out of game programs.\r\rCause that's basically what they're trying to create, an ingame version of discord. I just don't see it ever having equal or better functionality.\r\rCommunities support quick join, and you can easily share things like achievement\/mog\/gear links in chat, and you can be in more than one (unlike guilds), and they support the in-game calendar events. You also don't need to download and run any additional software, or learn how to use another voice program, unlike switching from flavor of the month to flavor of the month--was more an issue before discord, admittedly, but there are guilds that still require skype or vent, oddly.\r\rI hope in the future they break down more game-specific boundaries--it would be nice to quick join games\/parties from battle.net group chats like in steam. It also needs image\/video support and seamless mobile integration.\r\rObviously these things are probably in the works given they're a multi-billion dollar company.

Commento di Joshmaul

on 2018-04-18T00:13:02-05:00

This looks to be similar to the system they use in Diablo III...kind of like they did with World Quests. Is it my imagination, or is Blizzard copy-pasting quite a bit of D3's mechanics nowadays?

Commento di Potatosock

on 2018-04-18T00:20:29-05:00

in-game discord? try again blizzard.

Commento di Wynterarwyn

on 2018-04-18T00:28:25-05:00

Back when I played LOTRO (2008\/2009), which supports custom chat channels, I created the SKA channel (Small kinship Alliance) then advertised it as a way for people who had small Kins (Guilds) to meet others and find people for group content. To this day I'm friends with some of the people I met there. I'm looking forward to WOW having this as a way to do the same thing in the game. \r\rMy current guild consists of myself and my hubby and while we have no interest in joining another guild, it would be awesome to have a community of like minded people who are interested in making friends with folks for group content without the guild commitment. \r\rSo I'm hopeful for what this might bring the table.